Fincher, aside from the Fight Club adaptation, continually disappoints me. It was basically a boring version of Forrest Gump (substitute the CGI feather for a CGI hummingbird). Come to think of it, it's the second long, boring movie in a row from Brad Pitt (the first being The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford... what a snore that was aside from the often beautiful photography).Speaking of actors, Cate Blanchett was annoying as ever. I couldn't stand her cartoony performance in The Aviator (everything else about that movie is great, though), I couldn't stand her equally cartoony performance in the unfortunately underwhelming I'm Not There and I couldn't stand her here.
The whole thing wasn't even well-paced and I'm not even sure it knew what it was trying to be about. Possibly the only thing I liked was Tilda Swinton (although I guess the guy getting hit by lightning was pretty funny... I just couldn't muster laughter because my face was in perma-frown mode due to the rest of the proceedings). Most of the time I couldn't even tell what people were saying because they were mumbling and whispering.
By the way, Mr. Fincher... putting a cheap filter from Final Cut on your flashback footage does not make it look like it was filmed in the 20's. It makes it look worse than the similar (and similarly failed) effect in Planet Terror.
